Teaching Creative Writing at Yale

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

I love so much of what you just said and I love the mission that you're on of helping people kind of escape this formal education. But what I also love is you teach creative writing at Yale. So you're both helping people escape from their education but doing it at one of the best higher education places in the world. Was that a tough sell to anyone at Yale or was that, I don't know, what was the process?

In Episode #18, we explore becoming a better writer. We’re joined by Verlyn Klinkenborg, author and Yale professor. We cover learning from farm life and work, finding rhythm in writing, and debunking writing cliches.

“So what I do now is essentially help students escape from their education. That's my enterprise every year. And it's always fun, because they escape quite readily. They all know that what they're making in their classes is an artificial product that doesn't actually have any particular interest for anyone except them.” – Verlyn Klinkenborg

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/verlyn-klinkenborg-outliers-show-notes

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/verlyn-klinkenborg-outliers-transcript

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to becoming a better writer. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction
(00:01:54) – Rural life and the “home place”
(00:04:50) – Raising animals and eating meat
(00:11:07) – Learnings from farm life and work
(00:15:35) – Verlyn’s reading habits
(00:28:40) – Verlyn’s book Several Short Sentences About Writing
(00:34:49) – What is academic prose?
(00:40:08) – Why people should use shorter sentences in writing
(00:44:43) – Finding rhythm in writing
(00:48:49) – Self authorization and noticing the world around you
(00:55:26) – Writing cliches that are untrue
(01:06:43) – Writing is rooted in experience more than language

ABOUT SEVERAL SHORT SENTENCES ABOUT WRITING

Verlyn Klinkenborg teaches creative writing at Yale University, and was a member of the editorial board of The New York Times for 16 years. His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, and National Geographic, and he has authored several books, including Several Short Sentences About Writing. This book aims to debunk general cliches about writing and creativity and remove obstacles keeping us from clear self-expression.

💌 FREE NEWSLETTER

https://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter

🎙 LISTEN ON

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices